Suppose that legally, people own the right to clean air. That is, it is illegal for factories to emit toxic gases into the atmosphere. (Or, in other words, the right to clean air has been assigned to citizens rather than factories.) Thus, legally factories would need to either abate pollution or pay people for the damage to the air. Either case would be expected to internalize the cost of pollution and reach an optimal level of output.

Which of the following is the most likely reason that private markets may not reach this optimal solution?

a. Transaction costs may be too high.

b. There is no incentive to have clean air.

c. The assignment of property rights is not efficient.

d. The assignment of property rights is not fair.

The monthly demand equation for an electric utility company is estimated to be p equals 60 minus left parenthesis 10 superscript negative 5 baseline right parenthesis x, where p is measured in dollars and x is measured in thousands of killowatt-hours. the utility has fixed costs of $3 comma 000 comma 000 per month and variable costs of $32 per 1000 kilowatt-hours of electricity generated, so the cost function is upper c left parenthesis x right parenthesis equals 3 times 10 superscript 6 baseline plus 32 x. (a) find the value of x and the corresponding price for 1000 kilowatt-hours that maximize the utility's profit. (b) suppose that the rising fuel costs increase the utility's variable costs from $32 to $38, so its new cost function is upper c 1 left parenthesis x right parenthesis equals 3 times 10 superscript 6 baseline plus 38 x. should the utility pass all this increase of $6 per thousand kilowatt-hours on to the consumers?